An error in Christie criticism leads to a Jersey history lesson

Posted By
John Schoonejongen
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September 15, 2011 @ 5:03 pm
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Sen. Loretta Weinberg took the opportunity on Wednesday to criticize Gov. Chris Christie, who was visiting a Bergenfield school, for his education policies.

A joint release from Weinberg, who represents Bergenfield, and Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said it “is great to see the governor visiting the wonderful schools in Bergenfield, home to the outstanding music program where Frankie Valli got started.”

It seemed to be a nice segue into a riff on school funding cuts, but there was only one problem: Frankie Valli, the legendary leader of the Four Seasons, is not from Bergenfield. He’s from Newark.

This error was first pointed out by MoreMonmouthMusings[1] blogger Art Gallagher, who went to the same school – the Roy W. Brown Middle School – that Christie visited Wednesday.

“Bob Gaudio, Valli’s partner in The Four Seasons and the writer of most of the group’s hit songs, got his start in Bergenfield. Gaudio had his first hit record, Short Shorts, at the age of 15 while still a student at Bergenfield High School,” Gallagher wrote[2].

“Born Francis Castelluccio on May 3, 1934, he grew up in a public housing project – Stephen Crane Village – on the tough streets of Newark, New Jersey,” reads Valli’s biography.

Valli’s story has been turned into a successful Broadway musical, but Gaudio’s story is fascinating as well, as Gallagher pointed out. The principal at Bergenfield High School actually took the step of convincing Gaudio’s parents to let him drop out of school to pursue a music career.

“It was very astute of him,” said Gaudio in an interview posted on the Jersey Boys Blog[4], “and I think he was very tuned in to what kids were thinking and how they’re feeling at that stage in their lives.”

“I don’t know if he gave that type of advice to other people,” he said in the interview, “but it just made sense to him and was definitely the right decision for me, though I’m sure a major part of it was that I already had a hit record — I wasn’t just going to quit school and twiddle my thumbs and throw darts.”

The Bergen County Democrat’s error amounted to a hanging curveball for Gallagher, who used the mistake to make some political hay. The blogger grew up near Gaudio’s in-laws and admits to “a pre-teenaged crush on his first wife.”

In an email, Gallagher recalled meeting Gaudio, then a huge star, at a holiday party in the 1960s.

“I was too young to appreciate who he was … but my parents thought it would be cool for me to meet someone famous who just happened to be next door at a party,” Gallagher wrote.

One other tidbit not mentioned by Gallagher: The Four Seasons have serious Jersey cred, of course, with the other two members being from Newark and Belleville, but Gaudio himself was not born in New Jersey. While he grew up and came to fame in Bergenfield, Gaudio was born in The Bronx.